Why do people say the Genesis was a failure in Japan?

I know the system sold about 3.5-4 million units, the Saturn sold around 6 million and is considered a huge success as well as the DC, which wold about 2.5 million.

So yeah, why do people seem to act as if it was COMPLETELY forgotten in Japan?

Well, because you've gotta' remember that they come up with a new game system every week in Japan, so they can't even remember the Wii I bet. Game on and live on, and LOLZ!!!

It's "Mega Drive" not GENESIS. The system was only called GENESIS in North America.

Japan was the first region to officially discontinue the Mega Drive. Maybe the console didn't went as far as to be considered a failure in the region, but certanly wasn't that successful neither.

Also, console companies make money from third party royalties and not really as much from hardware sold. The Saturn sold more than 6 million units in Japan, but it is considered a success thanks for its strong software sales.

The Dreamcast was also far from successful in Japan or in any other region. The 10 million units sold worldwide are highly misleadng, specially when we take into account most of those units were sold at clearance prices or were refurbished units that did not revenue the company. And this was followed with general poor software sales and lack of third party support that paled in comparison to what the Saturn had in Japan alone. The Saturn had enough interest in Japan that even some third party companies manufactured them. Bottom line, the Dreamcast is considered a commercial failure for the company worldwide. Something that didn't happened with the SG-1000, Mark-III, Mega Drive and Saturn.

My bad, i thought it was only called Mega Drive in Europe. I know the Saturn did well and because of its hardcore appeal it got a lot of software because of that. I mean why didnt the Genesis get some sort of dedicated following too, it did after all sell a healthy amount of systems.-Pred-Alien-

It did got dedicated following (from both fans and game developers), maybe even more than the Saturn, but the hardcore appeal means very little in reality. The Saturn was more successful because it had better thid party support and more games that appealed to a wider Japanese audience.

Hmmm, I think its because the Genesis was overall an American console, games like Robocp vs the Terminator, Earthworm Jim, even Sonic is more appealing to an english person, then again Mario is Italian so I think I am stretching things here.